John B Watson
By: Eduardo Maradiaga
Early Life
Birth Date: January 9, 1878
Birth Place: Travelers Rest, South
Carolina
Watson was the fourth out of six
siblings total.
His father’s name was Pickens Butler
Watson.
His mother’s name was
This is a picture oh John’s house
where he lived as a child.
Life at School
Barely 16 years old, he
commenced his studies at
Furman University in 1894.
In the few psychology classes
he took, he got the lowest
grades out of the group.
Watson is the one at the far right…
University of Chicago
He arrived at Chicago in 1900 to
pursue his dream of becoming a
philosopher.
To earn some cash money he
worked as a janitor, waiter and rat
caretaker.
Being the youngest person to earn
a PhD at the university, he
graduated in 1903.
Starting a Family
John married Mary Ickes in
1904 after graduating.
They had two children named
Mary and John after their
parents.
Foundation of Behaviorism
“Psychology as the Behaviorist
views it”, published in the
Psychological Review made
Watson successful at John
Hopkins University, where he
worked for 14 years.
Considered a “landmark in the
founding of Behaviorism”.
The Affair
Watson’s career balked when
he had an affair with Rosalie
Rayner, which he married
shortly after divorcing his first
wife.
When the scandal went public,
John Hopkin’s administrator
asked for his resignation.
Advertising
After leaving John Hopkins, he
took a job with J. Walter
Thompson in an advertising
agency.
In 1935, John Watson switched
jobs to become an advertising
executive at the William Esty
Co.
Road to Success..
During his career as an
advertiser, he received some
influence by Ivan Pavlov and
decided do the famously
known “Little
Albert”experiment.
Little Albert Experiment
Summary of Theory: Emotions,
like fear, is taught and
conditioned. Emotions are not
innate.
Summary of Work: He conducted this
experiment by grabbing a random baby
to prove he ha no emotions yet. He
showed him 5 types of animals including
a dog and a rat. The baby responded
normally without a noticeable reaction.
After several tries, he started pairing the
rat with an annoying bell. The baby
startled.He later feared the image of the
rat alone without any noise.
CEGM
Cultural: No
Ethical: Non-ethical. Most of
the rules now established were
severely broken.
Gender: No
Methodology: Experimentation
Reductionist vs NonReductionist
This was reductionist since we
had no detailed explanation
on how the baby reacted or
what actions did the animals
took while they were left free
to run around. Many details
were not clearly stated.
See it for Yourself…
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=aG6A66iV5tk
Works Cited
 Bergmann, G. (1956). The contributions of John B.
Watson. Psychological Review, 63, 265-276.
 Brewer, C. L. (1991). Perspectives on John B. Watson.
In G. A. Kimble, M. Wertheimer, & C. L. White (Eds.),
Portraits of pioneers in psychology. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
 Buckley, K. W. (1989). Mechanical man: John Broadus
Watson and the beginnings ofﾊ behaviorism. New
York: Guilford Press.
 Hartley, M., & Commire, A. (1990). Breaking the
silence. New York: Putnam.Watson, J. B. (1936).
 John Broadus Watson. In C. Murchison (Ed.), A history
of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 3, pp. 271-281).
Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.